The United States yesterday exempted India, Malaysia and six other countries from financial sanctions for importing oil from Iran because it said those nations had reduced their purchases drastically.

The Obama administration, however, did not grant a waiver to China, Iran’s top crude buyer.

“Today I have made the determination that seven economies — India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan — have all significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran,” said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In a statement, she said these countries joined 11 others who had been exempted from sanctions in March.

“As a result, I will report to the Congress that sanctions pursuant to… the National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2012 will not apply to their financial institutions for a potentially renewable period of 180 days.”